A rewarding getaway on a tight budget

Problem: The family needs a weekend getaway in the middle of a July heat wave, but cash-flow is tight after repairs to our aging minivan.

Solution: Use our Aeroplan and Air Miles reward points to “get out of Dodge” and bankroll a glorious weekend getaway in Niagara Falls.

Maybe this isn't quite as glamorous as converting your travel rewards for a flight to a foreign hot spot in mid-winter. But when the mercury is stuck at 35C in southern Ontario in July, a weekend escape to the Falls is almost as welcome.

And for two youngsters who had never been there before, this was cause for real excitement.

Dad was pretty pumped, too. For one thing, the hotel I booked through Aeroplan had two things our home in the country does not: Air-conditioning and an indoor swimming pool.

The whole exercise took just a couple of minutes online and seemed a wonderful use of all those travel rewards piling up through our regular purchases of groceries, gas and the monthly phone-internet bill.

After going to the Aeroplan link to redeem travel rewards, selecting the hotels button and punching in Niagara Falls, we were offered half-a-dozen hotels in the Honeymoon Capital for varying amounts of travel rewards, depending on the level of comfort.

The whole family — myself, my wife Wendy, daughter Genevieve, 14, and son Eric, 12 — sat around the computer as we took a virtual tour of the different hotels and their amenities.

We settled on the mid-priced Best Western Summit Inn, just a five-minute drive from the falls, for 9,000 Aeroplan miles. A confirmation number for our hotel booking was emailed back a few minutes later.

Our other major planning exercise — something I had never done before — was to convert some of our accrued Air Miles rewards online and purchase two $50 gift cards for Boston Pizza, at 395 Air Miles per card. This is about as close as we can get to fine dining when travelling with teenagers.

The two gift cards were mailed out to us and arrived two days later. After another visit to the Boston Pizza site, we not only were able to pick out which restaurant we wanted — the one on Clifton Hill with the bowling alley, of course — but also check out the menu.

When the following weekend arrived, the heat wave showed no signs of weakening and we happily escaped to Niagara Falls in our newly repaired minivan, arriving shortly after lunch.

True to its online billing, the Best Western Summit had, indeed, been recently renovated, and our spacious double room was clean and comfortable. But the real drawing card for our overheated family was the indoor swimming pool housed under a glass atrium roof in the centre of the hotel.

After a refreshing swim, we set off to the falls, armed with brochures and maps from the Niagara Falls Tourism Board (niagarafallstourism.com).

The kids were simply awestruck by their sheer power and majesty, and Eric stood at the railing staring for an eternity at the rushing water, bathed in pink by the late afternoon sun.

Of course, the best way to see the falls is by sailing almost underneath them in the legendary Maid of the Mist boats. Visitors have been taking this excursion for the past 60 years and it never loses its ability to shock and awe.

I know it's the sheer volume of water roaring over the lip of the 170-foot-high falls at the rate of 100,000 cubic feet per second that makes the water look green.

Frankly, all we remembered — as most people do — is that, as you get closer to the falls, the noise is deafening and it feels like you're sailing through a car wash. You get very, very wet, even wearing the blue plastic raincoats provided.

“Ooh” and “Aah” was the response from the kids. From me, too.

The heat of the day dried out our wet clothes by the time we walked up Clifton Hill to our pizza dinner.

The choice of venue was perfect. The kids ran off between courses to use the attached bowling alley, while the parents sat glassy-eyed, sipping ice-cold Stella Artois on draft with considerable pleasure.

The bill for pizzas, drinks and dessert came in at $86. I handed the waitress our two $50 gift cards and told her to keep the rest as a tip. It was the end of a perfect family day out.

Our destination the next day, recommended by the folks at Niagara Falls Tourism, was the Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory ( www.niagaraparks.com/garden-trail/butterfly-conservatory.html).

The largest of its kind in North America, the conservatory is home to 2,000 butterflies from 45 different species, all fluttering around the vast indoor rainforest, which is heated to a constant 27.7C.

You quickly realize that these butterflies, in all their gloriously vibrant colours, are very used to people as they quite happily settle on your hand, head or face.

Later, as we piled into the minivan and headed for home, taking the scenic route along the gorge through Niagara-on-the-Lake, we all agreed that this had been a great weekend getaway.

The pleasure was heightened for dad as he reflected that, with the help of travel rewards points, we had kept the weekend budget down to a miserly $250 for gas, attractions and ice-creams.

Now, that is rewarding! We're already planning to use our travel rewards for another weekend getaway this fall.

Next stop: Ottawa.